[D-Rank] [Toothed Snapper] caught!
+50 EXP!
Your [Fishing] proficiency has increased by 1%!
"Another D-Rank?" I muttered, staring at the exp gained, which had become rather familiar to me over the past few days. I looked at the fish on the end of my rod, which looked like a normal Snapper, but a slightly freakish version. It was a reddish-brown color, and it was larger than a normal Snapper by a pretty big margin, as it looked to be a couple of feet long. On top of that, it had a jutting out lower part of its mouth, which bared a collection of sharp teeth.
"Should I even bother with this one?" I sighed, reaching out and casually grabbing the fish, which was flopping around on the end of my fishing rod, and pulling it free, "I guess I should. Stats are still stats, I'm just spoiled from the island..."
I glanced back, looking at the small rear portion of my raft-boat mixture, which had a large pile of fish from my fishing journey over the past four days. Most of the pile was filled with D-Rank fish, with even as few F-Rank ones, as it seemed that the further I got to the island - which was so far gone at this point that I didn't even know which direction would take me back - the less common B-Rank fish and Sea Kings were, and the more common smaller, less-threatening, but still freakish, fish were.
As I got further and further from my home for the past few months, I was now realizing just how nice of a starting point the island had been. The D-Rank fish were a pretty significant step down from the B-Rank ones, as they didn't give me a new modification upon eating them, and the stats I gained were a lot less too. Whereas the B-Rank fish tended to give me around 5 stat points for a few different stat categories, usually numbering in the 20ish range for total stats gained, the D-Rank fish were less than a quarter at that. Most of them only gave me stats for two categories, at most three, and the total stat count seemed to be around 3 or 4 most of the time - sometimes even lower.
As a result, even with spending pretty much the entirety of the last week doing nothing but fishing and floating around in the sea, I hadn't increased my stats by nearly as much as I would've liked to. I had set up a small fire to the side of my chair, which I had made with just a pile of sticks, and which was surrounded by a small pile of rocks that I'd brought with me from the island. The fire allowed me to continue to gain stats as I cooked and ate fish, even if it was much slower, and as a result, my stat page was now slightly better than before.
[Fisherman] Arvel:
Level: 29 (1770/29000)
HP: 2870/2900
STR: 2275
AGI: 1975
END: 1900
INT: 370
CHA: 920
HREG: 850
Skills: [Cooking], [Shelter Building], [Boat Building]
Modifications: [Sharpened Teeth], [Scaley Skin], [Fanged Tooth], [Slick Swim], [Fire Breath], [Sharp Eyes], [Quick Twitch], [Blubber Coat], [Slippery Skin], [Muscular Boost], [Hunter's Vision], [Indestructible Gut], [Poison Secretion]
"I thought I'd be able to raise all my stats a ton by just fishing all day, but..." I muttered, looking over my stat page, "This is slower than I would've liked. Maybe I should've just risked staying on the island for a few more months?"
If I had realized that I would struggle to find any more B-Rank fish, much less any more Sea Kings, after leaving the island, then I would've considered taking a few more months to fish there and gather up more stats. The threat of Aokiji's return was still looming overhead, so I thought I was playing it safe by leaving as soon as I could, but that might've been the opposite. I was still in One Piece, and while I hadn't run into any pirates or marines yet, I knew that wouldn't last forever.
And, unfortunately, I still didn't know just how strong I was in the grand scheme of this world. My stats had been increasing a lot, but I didn't know just what those stats actually meant. I had thought on it a bit, but at most, I had a few theories, and none of them comforted me.
"Assuming that 5 STR is the average man, because that's what I started at," I mumbled, running through the numbers in my head one more time as I talked to myself - something that I had been doing a lot recently, and had me wondering if I was just lonely, or if I was slowly going insane, "And an average man can probably bench, what, around a 100 pounds? So if it's linear, then 20 STR would be 4 times more, which means someone with 20 STR could bench press 400 pounds. If I assume that every 5 points is a 100-pound increase, then my almost 2300 STR means... not far from 50,000 pounds."
It was just a theory, but I didn't think it was a crazy one. I was strong enough to rip trees from the ground, which I assumed I needed to be damn-strong to do, even if I didn't know off the top of my head how much force it would take to do something like that - and, it wasn't like I could just look up the answer on my phone. When I had first come up with this '5 of a stat is average, and it increases in a linear way' theory, that 50,000 pounds had seemed like a shit-ton. I had been able to creak Sea King scales and one-shot the creatures, so I had assumed that 50,000 pounds was probably pretty accurate, and that I was strong as hell.
But then I remembered what world I was in. This wasn't my past world, where people were normal, and even most elite bodybuilders might've maxed out before 100 STR. This was a world with people like Whitebeard, who could crack the world around him with a punch, and Garp, who could throw cannonballs like baseballs. Even in Paradise, any named pirate with a decent bounty had either the pure strength or a Devil Fruit ability that allowed them to at least knock down buildings. Something that, despite how casual people in movies and anime made it look, was not easy in the slightest.
To execute a Saitama-like punch that bursts through an entire massive spaceship, it would take literal millions of pounds of force. And, while I wasn't about to be running into Saitama or anyone near him in this world, that didn't mean people capable of similar feats didn't exist. Zoro had been able to cut through a literal mountain, after all.
But, through what I was capable of, I had at least been able to get a rough estimate of where I thought I stood in this world. I could one-shot New World Sea Kings, which I assumed would be significantly tougher than Grandline, and especially non-Grandline ones. Luffy, at the start of his journey, had been able to one-shot the Lord of the Coast. Then, after gaining Gear Second and dominating the Grandline, Luffy had struggled against a Pacifista, as it had taken him, Zoro, and Sanji to take one down pre-timeskip. Overall, this all led me to the conclusion that I was probably somewhere between pre-timeskip Luffy and a Pacifista.
Not the worst place to be, as Luffy had been a Supernova and was taking down Warlords in Paradise, and a Pacifista was a weapon that was making an impact even in Marineford. I was at a point where I could survive in the New World, but if I ran into a Yonko, or even a named member of their crew, then I was about to be in for a fight to the death. Luckily, or maybe unluckily for my stat gainage, I didn't think I was in the New World anymore. That thought wasn't just based on nothing, either, as I had seen a similar result when I looked at my [Fish Encyclopedia] for every fish since leaving the island.
[Toothed Snapper]:
A D-Rank fish originating from the North Blue! This fish is a dominant predator in weak waters, but was chased to the outskirts of the North Blue by [?]! These fish like to live near the Calm Belt in order clean up scraps from [Sea Kings]! These fish can be found in the outskirts of the North Blue and near the Calm Belt!
Would you like to be notified when entering an area inhabited by the [Toothed Snapper]?
[Y/N]
The North Blue. That was a location that had been consistent with every fish I had caught since leaving the island, as the encyclopedia stated that every single one lived in the North Blue. But I had just been catching Sea Kings and fish that were found in the New World while I was on the island, so I couldn't have been in the North Blue. So, if I wasn't in the North Blue, then I was near it. And, considering I had been floating for about a week now, and the fact that the island was apparently in a spot that damn-near no one would go to, as well as the fact that I hadn't run into anybody yet while sailing away from it, there was only one place I could be: the Calm Belt.
It was a barrier of sorts in the ocean, as the Sea King-invested waters acted like guardrails for the entire Grandline. On the Paradise portion, the East Blue and West Blue were on either side of Paradise, but no one other than Marines could easily enter or leave because of the Calm Belt being between each sea and Paradise. On the New World portion, the Calm Belt acted as a barrier to the New World for the North Blue and the South Blue.
To be here made the most sense. The fact that the island was surrounded by Sea Kings, to the point that it was called 'Sea King Hell', lined up with what I knew about the Calm Belt. It was a strip of the ocean that was filled to the brim with Sea Kings, and unless you were Marines with Seastone coating their ships to hide themselves from the monsters, you couldn't travel through it freely. Though I had initially disregarded this idea over the past few days simply because the water here wasn't calm in the slightest.
It was a lot less rough than when I was near the island, but it was still pretty choppy, to the point that no boat in my past life would've dared to try sailing through it. I remembered that the Calm Belt was supposed to be, well, calm, in the fact that it was easy to traverse if you excluded the whole 'Sea Kings everywhere that will eat you and your entire boat' thing. But, as I looked down at my small boat-raft, I came to a pretty harsh conclusion.
Maybe, just maybe, possibly, potentially, I wasn't as good of a ship builder as I thought I was. These waves felt rough and nearly unbearable to me, and I was proud of my vessel that could chop through them like it was nothing, but I think I had been giving myself too much credit. These waves might've felt rough to me, who only had my past life's ocean to compare to it, but to the ones in the New World? To the sea where even a massive, top-tier, and possibly greatest ship to ever exist like the Thousand Sunny needed a top-tier navigator to survive?
Maybe my small raft-boat that I'd built on an abandoned island with no tools wasn't on that tier yet. Just maybe.
So, in the end, I came to the conclusion that I was in the Calm Belt - or, that I had been, at least. Now that I was sailing away from the island, and there wasn't even an occasional Sea King for the past four days, I figured that I was probably exiting it right now, and entering into the ocean closest to where the island was in the New World - the North Blue.
I felt like I had definitely lucked out here, as I had just chosen to sail in the direction from my island that Aokiji had come from, but I had definitely chosen the right one. If I had gone the opposite way, then I'd be sailing straight into the New World, and if I had even gone either of the other two options, then I'd be sailing in a straight line down the Calm Belt like a maniac. Granted, that would probably be a good way to find Sea Kings, so maybe I'd have to consider trying that at some point.
But, for right now, I would return to my monotonous sailing and fishing as the massive pile of fish behind me grew bigger.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The first sign of other people," I muttered, rising from the small chair on my raft as I leaned forward, using [Sharp Eyes] to peer across the massive expanse of ocean in front of me. A total of 10 days had passed since I left the island, and while I hadn't run into any other islands or ships yet, I knew the time was coming. The ocean was huge - massive, even, as it was the fuckin' ocean - but it wasn't infinite.
In this world, which was literally in the 'Great Pirate Era,' there were tens of thousands of ships sailing the sea, maybe even hundreds of thousands, between the pirates, Marines, World Government, bounty hunters, merchants, and every other person on the sea combined. I was surprised it even took this long for me to spot someone else, though that was likely because around 7 of those 10 days were spent in the Calm Belt, where damn-near no one would be. Even the Marines who could safely sail through there would just rush through as quickly as possible.
Far in front of me, I saw a small, nearly indistinguishable black outline against the horizon. From this distance, I couldn't tell anything about the object, as I figured it was probably a boat, but I didn't have any idea about the size. However, as I used [Sharp Eyes] and peered forward, I got a much better view of it. It was a boat, and it was small - really small, as it didn't look like a genuine pirate or marine ship, but instead a small, almost rowboat. It looked like it could only comfortably fit around five people, and it had both rows and a small mast with a sail on it.
Honestly, it looked like a shittier version of my initial attempts at building boats, which made me feel a bit better about my boat-building skills. But, as I peered at the boat, I couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. I had been alone for so long at this point, with the only other person I saw being Aokiji, and that hadn't exactly been a friendly chat. I had spent the last few days wondering what I would do when I ran into someone else.
Should I try to talk to them? Should I avoid them? Should I attack them? My instincts, honed by the constant danger of the Sea King Hell, told me to be cautious. The Sea Kings had become less frequent as I got further from the island, but I had still been on guard for the first few days, as I had to quickly burst away when the occasional Sea King popped out of the water under me.
The world of One Piece was a dangerous place, and not everyone would be as lazy as Aokiji. I could be sailing into a trap, or a dangerous pirate, or a bounty hunter, or I could simply be sailing towards a traveling merchant. There was no way to know for sure, but I had to make a decision.
"It's probably best to avoid contact for now," I finally decided after a long moment of thought, "I don't know who they are, and I don't know what they want. It's better to be safe than sorry."
I was strong, and I knew that I could probably take on a small boat with a handful of people, but I didn't know if they had a Devil Fruit user with them, or some other trick up their sleeve. But, even if I thought avoiding them was the best option-
"I can at least get in closer," I contradicted my previous words, glancing down at my small boat, which was far faster than any large boat, much less the tiny rowboat in front of me. Even with five men on the ship, unless they were really strong - something I doubted, because why would anyone important be on a shitty boat like that? I say, as I stand on a six-foot long raft - they wouldn't be able to catch me if I decided to run. Overall, there wasn't much risk, and as I came to that conclusion, my system seemed to agree. A screen popped up in front of me, and I raised an eyebrow as I read it.
[Quest Alert!]
Make contact with the [?] boat!
Discover the identity of the people on board!
Rewards:
+10 to all stats!
+A follow-up quest!
Time Limit: 1 Day
Failure: Miss out on a chain of quests!
A chain of quests? I assumed that meant they were just related quests, which made me tense a bit as I turned to look at the boat far in the distance again. If simply finding out who was onboard was enough to trigger another quest and start a whole line of quests, then that meant they were probably at least somewhat important. This wasn't just a simple merchant or sailor.
But, in the same vein, I knew they couldn't be anyone that dangerous. I was only getting 10 stat points to each attribute for completing this quest, which wasn't bad, but was pretty much the equivalent of chugging down a handful of fish - not terrible, but not anything crazy either. If someone truly dangerous was on board, then I'd definitely get more than that, right?
"I was going to at least check it out anyway, so fuck it," I muttered, sitting back down on my chair as I reached over and grabbed the paddle to my side, "It says 'miss out' if I don't complete it, so it's not like I'll die or anything. If it looks too dangerous, and I decide it's not worth the next quests, I'll just leave."
With my decision made and the risk-reward analyzed, I settled back in my chair as I placed the paddle back in its hole. Then, with a grin, I started to spin. The paddle churned the water, and my small boat-raft shot forward, leaving a trail of white foam in its wake. The boat in the distance, which had been a small speck against the horizon, quickly grew larger as I closed the distance between us. The wind whipped at my face, and the sun glinted off the water, but I barely noticed it, my focus entirely on the ship ahead. It didn't take long for me to get close, as I was moving faster than any typical boat could.
Within a few minutes, I was close enough that the people on board had spotted me, which was also now close enough for me to see the people on deck without needing [Sharp Eyes]. There were four of them, and they all looked... very familiar.
"I know I'm in the North Blue now, but to run into these people already?" I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the figures.
The four men on the boat were all dressed in the same, distinct uniform: a black tight underoutfit, with a white, towel-like headpiece draped over their heads and shoulders, along with white gloves on their hands. Their faces were covered by the headwear, which opened only for their eyes and mouths, and they had large headphones covering their ears, but I didn't need to see their faces to know who they were. They all stood in a rigid, military-like formation, and in their hands, they each held a rifle-like gun, which was now pointed directly at me, and there was a large '66' on the front of all their black shirts.
They were Germa 66 soldiers. The grunts of the Germa Kingdom, the military nation ruled by the Vinsmoke family, and the same family that Sanji, the cook of the Straw Hat Pirates, was a part of - or, had been a part of, at least. I knew it wasn't out of the question to run into these people, considering where I was, as Germa 66 was a legendary figure in the North Blue, and even in the other Blues and the Grandline, but I didn't expect it to be so soon.
They were a "mythical evil army" that was the subject of a comic strip that was circulated throughout this world, but they were also a real, dangerous force. They were a kingdom that sailed the seas in their massive ships - which literally was the Germa Kingdom as they didn't really have a singular island-nation to call home - and their soldiers were all clones, created for the sole purpose of fighting and dying for the kingdom.
They were a group of people that I, frankly, should not fuck with. While their power had faded out from when they had once ruled the entire North Blue, and were essentially a shell of their former glory, they were far from weak. The huge-ass army of artifical soliders, combined with the leader, Judge's, children, who were artifically enhanced and had been able to hold their own against Big Mom's crew, meant they were far from powerless. They also clearly had connections, as they had managed to secure an alliance - even if Big Mom went against their deal, so it wasn't a real one - with Big Mom's crew.
As I drew closer, one of the Germa soldiers took a step forward, raising his rifle towards me. I slowed my paddle as I got closer, the small boat-raft coming to a stop a good fifty feet away from their vessel. I wasn't going to get too close, just in case, as while they might not look like much, I knew that Germa 66 soldiers weren't normal grunts.
The guns they held likely weren't normal, as Germa's entire rise to power, and why Big Mom wanted to ally with them in the first place, was due to their technological prowess. I could probably take on these four, but I'd rather not get shot at, especially if those things had poison rounds or some other weird shit that could mess me up. I had no idea how my body would react to such things, and I didn't know how kitted out the grunts of Germa really were. Plus, these grunts were just a few random grunts - It would be strange for them to be sailing around in the middle of the North Blue on such a tiny boat, so I assumed there was another ship in the area.
"Halt! Identify yourself and your vessel!" The lead soldier shouted, his rifle pointed at my chest, which didn't concern me all that much. I didn't know just how tough my body was, but considering I could one-shot Sea Kings, and considered myself to be somewhere between pre-timeskip Luffy and a Pacifista strength-wise, I felt like I would survive a simple bullet. But, regardless of my confidence in surviving a bullet wound, I still raised my hands in a placating gesture. I didn't want to fight anyone, not yet at least, and especially not against Germa 66 when I had no idea if there was a larger ship nearby.
"Easy now," I said, keeping my voice as calm and non-threatening as possible, "I'm just a fisherman."
Honestly, I wasn't exactly sure why they were so hostile right now. It wasn't like Germa were pirates - they were a genuine Kingdom in the North Blue, as well as mercenaries for hire in the more underworld side of this sea. I didn't imagine that they could casually be going around threatening random ships and pointing their guns at them. The soldier who had spoken took another step forward, the rifle never wavering from my chest. The other three soldiers remained in their rigid formation, their weapons also aimed at me.
"A fisherman?" The soldier repeated, his tone flat and devoid of emotion, "I saw how quick your boat moved, and how you were doing something with your hands to control it... you think I'll believe that?"
Oh, right. It wasn't normal for a singular man to have enough strength to propel his boat across such a large gap of water in only a few minutes, so I guess I could understand why they were being so hostile now. Trying to act weak would be pointless here, so I'll just get to the point.
"Honestly, I am a fisherman. A very strong one, but still a fisherman," I shrugged unhelpfully at his words, "And, honestly, I just headed over here to see who you guys were. There's some pirates in this sea with high bounties, and I'm rather broke right now. But, clearly, you guys don't have a bounty."
That was only partially an excuse, as while I came over here moreso just to see who they were and to complete the quest, if they really had turned out to become some small-time pirates with bounties, then I definitely would've taken them down. I don't exactly have a lot of money right now - to be exact, I had about... 0 Beri? - and I would need to get some at somepoint.
While I was content with floating around for the past week on the ocean to get away from the Calm Belt, I couldn't just fish on this small raft for the rest of my life. I didn't know if there was a genuine job market for fishermen in this world, but if I couldn't find a way to make money off of that, then I'd probably turn to either piracy or bounty hunting. This was One Piece, after all, so it wasn't like I would be content living on some random island and owning a shop while the entire world was battling around me.
The soldier's eyes narrowed at my words, which I could barely see through the small goggles he had over them. Then, he glanced back at the other three grunts, who all stood in their rigid formation, their weapons still aimed at me. He gave a small nod, and then turned back to face me.
"Germa 66," he stated flatly, which I already knew, "We're a patrol ship. Just scanning the waters nearby for… something classified."
Patrolling this far out from the North Blue? That was a bit odd, because I figured I was still near the Calm Belt, but maybe I was deeper into the North Blue already than I assumed? Well, at least it seemed like a fight wasn't going to break out here, so I wouldn't have to deal with making an enemy out of-
"It's nothing personal," The clone-solider continued, his tone still flat and emotionless, and I sighed as 'nothing personal' was almost always followed by some sort of hostility, "But we'll definitely get a reward for bringing in a ship as fast as yours is, and maybe even a promotion. Even Germa doesn't have technology to allow us to move that quickly in such a small ship... we definitely have to take that boat."
So much for them just being a patrol, huh? It seemed these grunts were a bit corrupt, or maybe this was just how Germa 66 was. I couldn't really blame them, as I knew Germa was definitely evil at its core from the show, and their desire to stay on top of the technological game probably meant this was actually standard protocol.
These grunts had just seen an insanely fast boat, even if it had been powered by my hands and not anything really technological, and they knew they'd be rewarded greatly for capturing such a unique vessel. But, as the guns were pointed towards me, a new notification appeared.
[Quest Complete!]
Make contact with the Germa 66 boat!
Discover the identity of the people on board!
Rewards:
+10 to all stats!
+A follow-up quest!
[Quest Alert!]
Choose your relationship with Germa 66!
Defeat the four Germa soldiers!
OR
Convince the four Germa soldiers to spare your life!
Rewards:
+20 to all stats!
+A follow-up quest!
+Increased [Reputation] with Germa 66!
OR
+Increased [Infamy] with Germa 66!
Time Limit: 1 Hour
Failure: Miss out on a chain of quests!
I glanced over the new quest, taking it in instantly, and its implications. Its purpose was pretty blunt - the system wanted me to make a choice here, and I assumed that choice would relate to the rest of the chain quests I would get after. I could either hand my boat over to them and work towards being friendly with Germa, or I could beat the hell out of the grunts in front of me and make an enemy out of Germa.
"Surrender your ship and come with us quietly," The soldier continued, his finger resting on the trigger of the rifle, "Or we'll be forced to open fire. Your choice."
On one hand, making an enemy out of Germa would certainly be a bad move. But, on the other hand... there was no way in hell I was giving up my boat! The quest was just the icing on top, but regardless of the rewards, these bastards weren't getting my boat!
My hands, which had been raised in a placating gesture, slowly lowered. My muscles tensed, and I let out a small, disappointed sigh. Then, my lips curved upwards, and a small grin appeared on my face. I didn't want to fight, as even if I had taken out numerous Sea Kings, I wasn't a fighter at heart - after all, I had barely even thrown a punch before coming to this world. But, if my life was being threatened like this? Then, I might as well use it as a chance to see just how strong I really am, right?
"I'll give you a choice, too," I said, my voice being a tiny bit excited as my grin became wide, "You can turn your little boat around and forget you ever saw me. Or, you can see what happens when you piss off a fisherman who just spent half a year in Sea King Hell!"
The Germa soldiers were clones, made for the sole purpose of fighting and dying for their kingdom. They were supposed to be fearless, emotionless, and utterly loyal. But, as the words left my mouth, I saw a flicker of something in the lead soldier's eyes. It wasn't fear, but it was at least a brief moment of hesitation. He clearly wasn't a newbie, and he knew that when your opponent, who you outnumbered 4-to-1, and had a clear range advantage with your guns, was giving you an excited grin, it was bad news.
"Open fire!" He shouted, the hesitation vanishing as he made his decision.
As he did, he forfeited his life.
As the command left his lips, the other three soldiers opened fire as his finger pressed down on the trigger. The sound of four rifles firing at once echoed across the water, and four bullets shot across the small gap between our boats at a fast speed, which would've been at best a blur to a normal person's eyes.
But I was no longer a normal person.
I almost felt like I was in slow motion as the bullets closed in on my chest, my brain working at a speed that I hadn't experienced before. To me, they looked like four small, black specks flying at a rather decent speed, but they weren't a blur like they would've been to my old self. I could see the small, golden tip at the front of each bullet, and the way they spun as they flew through the air. They didn't look nearly as dangerous as I would've thought they would be.
I brought my right hand up, swiping it across the space in front of me as the bullets approached me. The four bullets slammed into my hand, and I barely felt the impact as I didn't even flinch. It seemed I was underselling myself with the assumption that I'd survive a gunshot, as I didn't only just survive the bullets that slammed into my hand, but my END was so high that I could literally catch them out of the air. I looked down at my palm, which wasn't even bruised, much less bleeding or filled with bullet holes. The four bullets were now flattened and deformed, lying in the palm of my hand, as I'd put a bit too much strength into swiping them out of the air.
"Huh, I guess I really am strong?" I muttered, a bit surprised at the lack of damage. I had been confident that I could survive a bullet, but I hadn't expected to just catch them out of the air with no damage. Then, I looked up, my grin returning as I looked at the frozen forms of the Germa soldiers, who clearly hadn't expected me to catch their bullets out of the air.
"That was badass, right?" I asked them, my grin widening as I looked down at the flattened bullets in my hand, "That was your turn, so it's mine now!"
Then, before they could answer, I cocked back my hand, my muscles tensing as my biceps bulged. Then, I swung my arm forward, and I sent the four flattened bullets flying back at the Germa soldiers. They flew through the air, looking like a blur of metal, and slammed into the chests of the four soldiers. As they did, my eyes went wide. The four flattened bullets tore through the white cloaks of the Germa soldiers, creating four neat holes in their chests, with one in each of their chests.
But the bullets didn't just rip through their chests - instead, they carried their bodies backwards from the pure force of my throw. They didn't even have a chance to react as they were sent stumbling backward, their rifles clattering to the deck of their small boat. Spurts of blood shot from their chests, as they all fell backwards, the force of the bullets pulling their bodies over the side of the boat, and their bodies landed in the ocean with a simple four splashes.
I stared at the now-empty boat, my grin slowly fading as I processed what had just happened. I had just killed four people. Four Germa soldiers, but still, they were people. I had never killed anyone before - well, I had fought and killed Sea Kings, but they were monsters. These were human beings, even if they were clones, and their whole life's purpose was to die for Germa - which they had just done.
"I... didn't think they'd just die like that," I muttered, staring at the area around the boat as it became tinged with red, and none of the Germa soldiers came swimming back up. They were certainly dead, and I had killed them.
For a moment, I just stared, unsure of how to feel. I mean, they were going to kill me if I didn't give up my boat, so it was definitely justified. They were also the ones who pointed the guns at me and had threatened me with death. In every sense of the word, this was a justified killing. But, even if it was justified, I didn't feel great about it.
However, I couldn't focus on that feeling for long, as my attention was drawn to a new screen that had popped up in front of me.
[Quest Complete!]
Choose your relationship with Germa 66!
Either defeat or make an alliance with the Germa 66 boat!
Defeat the four Germa soliders!
Rewards:
+20 to all stats!
+A follow-up quest!
+Increased [Infamy] with Germa 66!
[Quest Alert!]
Either evade Germa notice, or declare war against them!
Evade [Germa 66]'s patrols for one week
OR
Find a [Germa 66] command boat, and defeat the commander!
Rewards:
+50 to all stats!
+A follow-up quest!
+Decreased [Infamy] with Germa 66!
OR
+Increased [Infamy] with Germa 66!
Time Limit: 1 Week
Failure: Miss out on continuing the chain of quests!
I glanced down at the new quest as my eyes narrowed, quickly glancing over the information at the quest gave me two more options.
Evading Germa's patrols for a week? That seemed like a bit of a pain in the ass, as they were a technologically advanced Kingdom with a literal military force. But, at the same time, it wasn't like anyone knew what I looked like - as long as I left immediately and got the hell away from the bloody boat in front of me, then no one would be any the wiser that it was me who killed the soldiers. I'd have to play it safe for the next week, and pretty much just stay away from any boats I saw as I continued to fish, which wasn't the most exciting, but... the other option was declaring war on Germa 66 by seeking out and defeating a command ship, which, while it would've been a lot more exciting, was clearly a much worse choice.
That was just suicide, as I knew I was strong, but I wasn't that strong, and I was alone. Escalating this into a full-on manhunt with Germa ships coming after me would be incredibly risky, as while I now knew I could handle the grunt-soldiers without any problems, that didn't mean I could take down Judge himself, or any of Sanji's siblings, easily. They were still a group of people who could survive in the New World, and who had held their own against Big Mom's crew.
Overall, if I were being as safe as possible, I'd just say 'fuck this quest' and go back to fishing as I headed to another sea. I still didn't know where in the timeline I was, and this world was very dangerous, so it would be best to find a safe, calm place to start gathering information. Preferably, that would be in the weakest sea: the East Blue. Quest aside, I felt like my best course of action would be to just get the hell out of here, head to the East Blue, and spend some more time info-gathering as I continued to fish.
But right now, I wasn't going to be as safe as possible. Not yet, at least. The quest gave a reward of +50 to all stats for evading Germa for one week, which wasn't all that amazing, but it was decent. And, when I considered that the first quest in the chain gave me 10 to each stat, the second 20, and then the third 50? The rewards were increasing with each quest, and the other quests in this chain, if it continued to escalate like this, might give out rewards in the hundreds of stats for each one.
With my average stat gain decreasing a lot now that I was in the North Blue, I'd be a damn idiot to turn down the opportunity to gain stats quickly. The chain of quests was also important, as the deeper quests in the quest chain would probably have even more valuable rewards than simple stat boosts.
"I don't really care about this 'infamy' stuff right now, but..." I hummed, glancing over the quest again. I didn't even know what 'infamy' meant in this sense - obviously, it meant having a bad reputation with Germa, but I didn't know what that word meant in the sense of the system. I hadn't seen any type of reputation system in the system yet, so I didn't know if it was just telling me that I'd become more or less infamous with them for my actions, or if something within the system would change.
"But, I want the rest of the chain quest, so I have to do one of them, and I'll do the 'Evade Patrol' part," I decided, my gaze drifting back to the empty boat in front of me.
The easiest way to start would be to destroy the evidence. Which, luckily, was pretty damn easy for me. I simply opened my mouth, and a burst of fire shot forward from my [Fire Breath] modification. It slammed into the boat, immediately setting fire to the wood and causing it to flare upward. The flames spread across the small vessel with alarming speed, spreading from plank to plank, and suddenly, the entire boat was consumed in flames.
The boat started to crumble, the wood groaning as it was consumed by the fire, and smoke billowed into the sky, creating a dark pillar that could be seen for likely miles all around me. I let the fire burn for a few more minutes, watching as the boat slowly disintegrated into a charred, smoldering wreck. The bodies of the four soldiers were nowhere to be seen, likely having sunk to the bottom of the ocean by now, and the only sign that a boat had ever been here was the lingering smell of smoke and the small pile of debris.
As I looked at the smoldering wreckage, I felt a bit better, as I figured that anyone who found the remains would believe this was the work of a bigger crew. They wouldn't expect one random guy on a raft to have been able to take out four Germa soldiers and burn their boat to the ground. Germa would certainly know that the patrol boat had gone missing, and they'd probably send someone to investigate, but when they found a charred wreck, they'd probably assume that it was the work of a pirate crew, or maybe even a Marine ship. They wouldn't have any reason to suspect me, especially if I was long gone by the time they got here, even if I did run into any more Germa ships in the future.
With a final nod to myself, satisfied with my work, I turned away from the wreckage and walked back to my chair. The smoke in the air could draw the attention of another nearby ship, even if I couldn't see one right now, so it would be best to get away from the scene of the crime immediately. I sat down, my hands gripping the paddle, and I started to spin. The small raft shot forward, leaving the smoldering wreckage behind as I zipped away through the ocean.
Now, it was time to find an island to settle on for the next week, or maybe even longer. I needed to gather more information about this world - both about where I was in the timeline, and about what part of the North Blue I was in. To do that, I needed to find an inhabited island. I set my gaze forward, scanning the horizon as my boat continued to chug through the waves, and after roughly an hour of sailing, my lips curved into a grin as the silhouette of an island came into view.
"So, this will be my new home for a while," I hummed, shifting in my chair as I stared at the island, which was rapidly growing as I went closer to it, "Hopefully it's pretty nice. Though after being stranded on an abandoned island, I think anywhere will look nice."
As I chuckled at my own words, I had no idea of the danger that was lying ahead.
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be posted in around 2 weeks!
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